The advent of electronic trading has reduced the transaction costs associated with trading securities, derivatives, and other items. In many electronic trading systems, however, it remains necessary for each party to a transaction to ensure that its exposure to credit risk arising from the possibility of default by its transaction counterparty does not exceed acceptable limits. Such credit risk is addressed in many cases by a clearing house or other centralized entity that stands behind every transaction and assumes the risk of transaction counterparty default. In other markets, however, such as markets for trading certain energy products, trading is typically conducted on a bi-lateral basis, without a centralized clearing entity, and each party assumes the credit risk associated with its trading counterparties, at least for some amount of time. Participants in these markets typically establish bi-lateral credit rules and/or limits where each trading entity specifies whether it is willing to trade with each potential counterparty and/or where each trading entity specifies maximum amounts of credit that it is willing to extend to such potential counterparties. This has resulted in many financial institutions developing credit evaluation departments to evaluate the credit risk of its trading counterparties. It has also resulted in the development of electronic trading systems that incorporate credit modules to store and apply such credit rules and/or or limits, which are widely used today.